All is quiet on the Braves trade front

It was all work and no play for Dustin Traylen at the CCHL trade deadline.

The Brockville Braves general manager and co-owner estimated his cell phone log would be “well over 250” in regards to the amount of calls he received and made Thursday.

In the end, the Braves didn’t make any moves at the CCHL trade deadline, which expired Thursday at 7 p.m.

In past seasons the deadline was at midnight. The early cutoff gave Traylen a chance to eat a Sheppard’s pie dinner with his family with the bite to eat with his wife and children usually a rarity for the GM on deadline day – “Small perks in life,” he said.

And, while Traylen had a change of pace Thursday night, his team stayed exactly the same.

The local general manager said he made some offers that were rejected.

He also declined trade requests sent his way, the bulk of them asking for younger players.

“Joshua Spratt (six goals and 16 assists) or a Parker Casey (three goals and 22 assists), we feel they’ll elevate their game to a level that is better than the trades we had on the table,” said Traylen, focusing on those players’ success this season.

Most of the CCHL stood still at the trade deadline except for 11th place Pembroke Lumber Kings, who made several moves.

It’s somewhat surprising most teams didn’t do much to improve their roster before the deadline considering just eight points separates first-place Hawkesbury Hawks and fifth-place Ottawa Jr. Senators. The Carelton Place Canadians, Rockland Nationals, and Braves are sandwiched between those clubs in the standings.

Traylen couldn’t explain why teams weren’t willing to do much before the deadline.

“We were back-and-forth with every team in our league,” said Traylen. “Literally, everyone stood pat.”

The Braves were only eligible to make one move before the deadline because they used most of their league-allotted number of trades in November.

Since Brockville didn’t use their one move they can still sign one player to their roster – not through a trade – before Feb. 10.

“I’m very happy with what we have and if we can add a player between now and Feb. 10 then we will,” said Traylen.

It’s been tough to gauge the Braves lineup in recent months as they haven’t iced a fulled roster since November because of all the trades that month followed by injuries and a trio of players that left the team for a couple of weeks to compete in the World Jr. A Challenge.

This was the quietest the deadline has been for Traylen in his four years owning the team. Last year he brought back Eric Faith to the team at the deadline after moving him just 78 days earlier. Traylen brought in a pair of players in Derek Bureau and Reid Murphy ahead of the 2016-17 deadline. At the 2015-16 deadline he added Chris Chaddock.